


Talking Over Things

by Areiton



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel is a Good Friend, Dean is Bad at Feelings, Dean talks to Cas, M/M, Sam Ships It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-03
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-28 21:44:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8464069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: Dean doesn't mean to talk to Castiel.It just...sorta happens.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [museaway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/museaway/gifts).



> So I keep meaning to move this here from tumblr and forgetting. Oops. Anyway. Museaway was traveling after ATlcon and asked for happy stories, and this happened. Loosely prompted by the adorable phone call between Dean and Cas in 12.O2

 

It’s not that Dean _means_ to talk to Cas. He doesn’t even know when it started. It’s just…something that happens. He gets caught up in his head, and then Cas is there, and it just comes out.

The attraction to Amara. His worry for Sam. The bundle of confusion that wears his mother’s face.

It’s shit that Dean is used to carrying on his own. He’s done it for years, shouldered the hard shit because that’s his job. To protect Sam, he takes the hard shit. It doesn’t even bother him. It’s just the way things are. And so what, if he wants to talk, if he hates carrying it. Laying all the bad shit, the fear and stress and worry, the consuming, _what if we fail_ –laying that on Sammy is selfish and wrong and it’s so anathema to who he is Dean never really considers it.

But Castiel is different.

Castiel is a soldier, _God’s_ soldier, and he takes care of Dean. Sure, it’s symbiotic. They help each other. But he’s never _needed_ Dean’s care, not the way Sam does.

And he talks to Dean. Tells him shit that Dean knows he doesn’t tell anyone else. He’s been doing that, trusting Dean, since they met.

Maybe that’s why it’s easy to talk to him. Because Cas trusts him. Because when Cas watches him with those fucking big blue eyes, it’s without judgment.

The angel dragged him from hell and knows every single darkest part of him, shit that even Sam doesn’t, and he still watches Dean with something like awe in his eyes.

And that.

That makes him talk.

Makes it easier for Dean fucking Winchester, the man who doesn’t talk about feelings, whose bottled them up for thirty three _years_ , spill them out. Scatter them like pennies in a well, trusting that Cas will hold them and keep them safe.

Sometimes it’s stupid shit.

_I want to watch that,_ of a romantic comedy they see advertised. Or, when Cas finds Dean picking through the leftovers of Sam’s salad after lunch, a wide eyed stare and _Don’t you tell him._

But sometimes, sometimes it’s serious. It’s late, and dark and Dean should be sleeping but he can’t and he reaches for the angel through a phone call. _I’m scared._

And.

_How do I keep them both safe._

Castiel doesn’t have answers. But he isn’t meant to. He’s just meant to listen.

But there is one secret. One thing that presses against Dean’s teeth, begging to be spilled, the one thing he sees reflected in Cas’s eyes when the angel speaks and when Dean grows quiet and serious. It aches in his gut, lingers on his tongue, begging to be said, begging to be shared.

Some days, he’s afraid he’ll say it without meaning to, that it’ll be out there, and Cas will be gone.

So. It lingers, unspoken, until it’s this _thing_. Large and almost unavoidable, and every time Dean opens his mouth, every time Castiel looks up at him, expectant and waiting and so fucking patient, it’s _there._

Until Dean stops talking.

And Cas’s smile, which had been so present, dims.

And Sam scowls, all kicked puppy angry and hurt.

Mary just watches them all with this bemused confusion.

Dean knows he fucked up. Knows what it’ll take to fix. He’s just terrified to go there. Because how do you come back?

Castiel finds him, in his room. Dean is relieved, and worried, and braced for the worst. They’ve been headed here, for weeks. Sometimes, Dean thinks they’ve been headed here since that damn barn.

_I’m going in the morning,_ is all Castiel says. The words fall into the dark room like stones, shattering against him, and there’s nothing Dean can do to stop it.

Nothing he can do to keep Cas here.

Except.

_Don’t leave me._

Castiel is staring at him. That makes it easier. Because Castiel has been staring at him, watching and waiting, for years. And it was supposed to be hard, and terrifying but now that he’s talking, it’s so fucking easy.

Dean stands, crosses the room to take Cas by the shoulder, gripping too tight.

_Don’t go. Stay with me._

Blue eyes shine in the darkness, gentle and waiting, and Dean knows he knows. And it changes nothing and everything and Cas smiles when Dean says it, wild and bright, so fucking bright it’s blinding.

_C’mon man. You gotta stay._

_I love you._

_Stay._

He’s babbling, and Cas laughs, this one deep noise that soothes away the last of his fear, tugging Dean closer before he kisses him.

Later, much later, in the dark, Castiel smiles at him, draped across his chest, and Dean talks.

He doesn’t really mean to.

Its just something that happens.


End file.
